Ongoing and upcoming Art Nouveau exhibitions, visits and more...

Expressionisms - The Collection from Kokoschka to AnzingerDates:07/03/2015-21/06/2015

Based on the impressions gained during her first examination of the museum holdings, the new curator for modern art, Beatrice von Bormann, has devised an exhibition about Expressionism. It features paintings, sculptures, drawings, and graphic prints by about eighty artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The focus is on Austrian and German Expressionism, from the early period before World War I to the Neo‑Expressionism of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Neuen Wilden.

Organised by the Réseau Art Nouveau Network in the framework of the European project "Art Nouveau & Ecology" (2010-2015) supported by the Culture 2007-2013 programme of the European Commission, the exhibition comprises two identical concurrent exhibitions and has begun its journey to all partner cities in October 2013.

After Aveiro, the exhibition The Nature of Art Nouveau 2 will be presented in Milan at the Exhibition Space of the Palazzo Lombardia, seat of the Regione Lombardia, sixth step of its European journey, from 26 March until 24 April 2015.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was the first Japanese artist to be internationally recognized, and he continues to inspire artists around the world. As the home of the largest and finest collection of Japanese art outside Japan—including the greatest variety of Hokusai works in any museum—the MFA is uniquely positioned to offer a comprehensive exhibition of this remarkable artist. Drawing from extensive holdings of paintings, woodblock prints, and illustrated printed books, the Museum will showcase an array of works from Hokusai’s seven-decade career, including lesser-known pieces depicting whimsical instructions on how to draw, dynamic paintings on paper lanterns, and elaborate cut-out dioramas. Also displayed are some of the most famous images in Japanese art, including Under the Wave Off Kanagawa (Great Wave) (about 1830–31)—from the legendary series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji—and the brilliantly colored multi-panel screen painting Phoenix (1835). Spanning Hokusai’s work from his 20s through his 80s, the exhibition will explore common themes through sections dedicated to topics such as landscapes, nature, fantasy, and the “Floating World” of urban culture (including depictions of the Kabuki theater and the Yoshiwara pleasure district). Works that depict Japanese historical and literary motifs will be featured along with “perspective prints” with exaggerated vanishing points, often used in toy peep shows. An extremely delicate silk square of a mythological Chinese lion, likely used as a gift wrapper (fukusa), will also be included, in a rare public display of the fragile work. An illustrated publication will accompany the exhibition.